Moses Mendelssohn Commentary on Moses Maimonides’ “Logical Terms”1 (Selection Translated from the Hebrew)2 {199} <25>3 PREFACE (To the Second Edition, 1765) This root sometimes signifies the .הגה is a substantive derived from the root 4הגיון The word endeavor of meditation,5 which is called by the philosophers6 inward or mental discourse; in 1 The commentary appeared in three editions during Mendelssohn’s lifetime: 1st edition, Frankfurt on the Oder, 1761; 2nd edition, Berlin, 1765; 3rd edition, Berlin, 1783–84. For more exact information and for everything that concerns the text, one must be referred to the Hebrew original. There it is also explained why the 2nd edition has been the basis for the text (and consequently also the translation). It should be mentioned that the preface is found only in the 2nd edition and that Mendelssohn spells out the relationship of the 2nd edition to the 1st edition at the conclusion of the preface (Logik 208.15ff.). {LS} 2 For LS’s German translation of Mendelssohn’s Hebrew (and of Moses ibn Tibbon’s Hebrew translation of Maimonides’ original Arabic, which Mendelssohn uses), see Mendelssohn, “Kommentar an den Termini der Logik des Mose ben Maimon [In Auswahl aus dem Hebräischen übersezt],” JA II 197–230; henceforth Logik followed by page and line numbers. 3 In the present English translation of LS’s German, page numbers in boldface inside curly brackets refer to JA II 199–230. Page numbers in boldface inside angular brackets refer to JA XIV 25–31 (preface), 45 (the excerpt from chapter 4), 51–66 (chapter 7), and 101–2 (the excerpt from chapter 11). A word of explanation is needed for some apparent incongruities and redundancies in the sequence of these page numbers. The incongruities and redundancies are only apparent. In JA II and JA XIV, Mendelssohn’s comments on specific Maimonidean passages, on the one hand, and the Maimonidean text containing those passages, on the other hand, occur in each case on the same printed page—in parallel, as it were (although the parallelism is vertical rather than horizontal). In contrast, the present translation reproduces each Maimonidean excerpt in full and waits till immediately following that excerpt to add Mendelssohn’s comments. Mendelssohn himself enumerates each of the Maimonidean passages on which he comments. He then uses those same enumerations when correlating his comments with the passages in question. The present translation retains Mendelssohn’s own enumerations—both those in the Maimonidean text (as superscripts in boldface followed by a close-parenthesis) and those introducing Mendelssohn’s comments—in order to facilitate cross-reference between the Maimonidean text and the Mendelssohnian comments. JA II and JA XIV page numbers are retained as well, despite the apparent incongruities and redundancies that result, in order to encourage and facilitate cross- reference between the present translation and the German and Hebrew originals. {the Hebrew word for “logic.” See Logik 203.5–6, below. {LS — הגיון 4 .in the Hebrewº text is “Meditation העיון והמחשבה Ger.:] Meditation. In parentheses after] 5 Betrachtung.” {LS} 451 other cases it designates utterance or discourse with the speech organs, which is called outward והגיתי בכל פעלך Joshua 1:8),8) והגית בו יומם ולילה or spoken discourse.7 For the Scriptural verses Psalm 49:4)10 all speak of the endeavor of meditation) והגות לבי תבונות Psalm 77:13 and 143:5),9) and the striving of the understanding, since here the heart is signified; and in the holy language “heart” designates the power of the rational soul that knows the truth about things. But in the לשונכם עולה תהגה Psalm 37:30),12) פי צדיק יהגה חכמה Job 27:4),11) ולשוני אם יהגה רמיה passages Job 37:2),15 speaking with the lips is) והגה מפיו יצא Psalm 115:7),14) לא יהגו בגרונם Isaiah 59:3),13) Sanhedrin 90)16 is signified he) ההוגה את השם באותיותיו signified. In the language of our Sages, by who brings to his lips the letters of God’s name. One word is applied to both aforementioned significations, on the basis17 of the relationship that exists between them; for speaking and thinking are inseparably bound to each other, like body and soul. Just as the body remains like a lifeless stone if the soul is separated from it, and the soul in turn vanishes from the perception of all mortals18 if it is not clothed in the body since it can be known to the human being during his life only by means of its activities of knowing, so discourse is related to thought. Speech without opinions and thoughts is nothing but a mere noise, like the sound of thunder and the sound of an earthquake,19 which are not the sound of words; and the {200} fleeting inward thought can reveal itself by means of bodily movement and cause an impression in the outside world only if it has clothed itself with a bodily robe. This revelation proceeds in the manner20 of the thought’s passing from the soul of the one discoursing to the brain, from there to the moving parts that belong to the speech organs, from there into the air, where it causes various movements in the ear of the hearer, until finally the hearer understands the intent of the one discoursing. This bond between the spiritual and the bodily is a quite wondrous thing.21 Because of it, every day we .See IPM XVIIIn23 .בעלי החכמה :.Ger.: Weltweise. Heb 6 7 [Ger.:] innere . äussere Rede. This relation is altered by Maimonides in chapter 14; cf. Aristotle, Posterior Analytics A.10. {LS; reading verwandelt for verwandt at JA II 408 ad loc.} 8 Heb.: And you shall meditate on it day and night. 9 Heb.: And I have meditated on all your actions. 10 Heb.: And the meditation of my heart is understandings. 11 Heb.: Nor does my tongue utter deceit. 12 Heb.: The mouth of the just one utters wisdom. 13 Heb.: Your tongue utters treachery. 14 Heb.: They do not utter in their throat. 15 Heb.: And utterance comes out from his mouth. 16 Heb.: He who utters the Name with his lips. Elsewhere, Grund is either “basis” or “ground” according .צד :.Or: ground. Ger.: Grund. Heb 17 to the context. .תסתר מעיני כל בשר :.Ger.: der Wahrnehmung aller Sterblichen entschwindet. Heb 18 19 Allusion to I Kings 19:11–13 and Isaiah 29:6. {LS} .אופן :.Ger.: Weise. Heb 20 .ענין נפלא :.More or less lit.: wonderful subject. Ger.: wunderbarer Gegenstand. Heb 21 451 452 recite the blessing, “. and does wonders,”22 as Moses Isserles says in Orach Chayyim VI.1 (q.v.).23 No investigation can penetrate it, can understand how the bodily movement in the brain changes into something spiritual,24 namely, into the representation25 and sensation26 of the soul; nor, similarly, how from this spiritual representation a bodily movement emerges in the brain. As for the assertion that Magen Avraham, ad loc.,27 adduces as the doctrine of the Book of Intentions,28 however, namely, that the soul is refreshed by spiritual food and the body by material food, <26> it agrees with scientific doctrine,29 to be sure. Modern investigations confirm that every food forms blood, and that from the blood emerges the pure and clear fluid that in German is called “nerve fluid” and is the source of voluntary movement and of sensation.30 Nevertheless, this assertion supplies no explanation for the aforementioned wonder. For the fluid we have spoken of is indeed something fine and pure and does not fall under the senses, and therefore has to be called something spiritual; but it is contained in space and enclosed in three dimensions, and it moves from place to place in a spatial movement.31 Thus, it does not consist in a representation of the soul; for this is not contained in space, is not enclosed in dimensions, and is not subject to spatial movement. We therefore do not know how a representation emerges from spatial movement and vice versa. Yet we have gone too far from our intention; for we wished only to point out the inseparable bond between inward and outward discourse. There is another, {201} deeper regard32 in which the dependence of inward on outward speech becomes clear; this rests on the following principle: each sensory representation33 has to do with the particular, and each intellectual representation34 has to do with the universal;35 i.e., each sensory representation is related to a sense-object36 that is one 22 The blessing to be said at the start of daily morning prayer: “Praised [art Thou, O Lord our God,] who heals all flesh and does wonders.” {LS} 23 Rabbi Moses Isserles of Krakow (1520–72).—Orach Chayyim is the first part of the Shulchan Aruch, the code of Jewish law composed by Rabbi Joseph Caro, which Isserles amplified with “Reports.” {LS} .דבר רוחני :.Ger.: etwas Geistiges. Heb 24 .השגה :.Ger.: Vorstellung. Heb 25 .הרגשה :.Ger.: Empfindung. Heb 26 27 Magen Avraham is the name of the commentary on Orach Chayyim composed by Abraham Abele ben Chayyim Halevy Gumbiner (1635–83). {LS} 28 The author of the Book of Intentions is the Kabbalist Isaac Luria (1535–72). {LS} .חקירה :.Ger.: Lehre der Wissenschaft. Heb 29 30 For the history of the views on “nerve fluid,” cf. Bela Révesz, Geschichte des Seelenbegriffes und der Seelenlokalisation (Stuttgart, 1917), 181, 185, 196–98. From the contemporary literature, cf. especially Haller, Elementa Psychologiae, vol. IV, bk. 10, sect viii, §§5 ff. {LS} .תנועת העתקה :.Ger.: räumliche Bewegung. Heb 31 .בחינה :.Ger.: Rücksicht.